“Are you having a meeting without me?”
The dashboard lights told her Renny had already set the autopilot, but he pretended to set it again. “No, just talking.”
“About?”
“Taking a small detour.”
“That’s why I came up here,” she said. “We’re going the wrong way.”
“I need to make a quick stop.” Renny slid his eyes toward her. “On Vega.”
Vega?
Fear tightened her airway. She could almost hear the rustle of soybean leaves and the crack of breaking stems. She had never intended to go back there. She didn’t know if she could stand to see that settlement again. Just thinking about the saltbox shops and the dusty streets made it hard to breathe.
“Why?” she asked.
“There was a problem with our last delivery payment.”
“And you have to deal with it now?”
Kane stood up from the copilot’s chair and stepped over an obstacle course of legs and feet until he reached her at the doorway. He took her elbow and guided her away from the group into the bridge. “You can stay on the ship,” he said in her ear. “You don’t even have to look out the window if you don’t want to. The whole thing won’t take more than an hour.”
She released a quiet breath.
“Renny wants me with him at the warehouse, but I’ll stay here if you need me.” His thumb brushed the sensitive bend of her arm. “Just say the word.”
“I’ll be fine,” she told him. As long as she didn’t have to leave the ship, she could pretend she was anywhere.
“Arabelle’s staying on board, too.” Kane dropped his voice to a whisper. “She offered to scan the ship for trackers and bugs. Maybe you should help her. It’s a big job for one person, know what I mean?”
She understood the subtext, but she didn’t share his suspicion. Whatever means Fleece had used to spy on them, she doubted Arabelle was involved. Arabelle had no motive to help Fleece, and besides, she’d never asked the crew to bring her aboard. They’d literally snatched her and run. But to placate Kane, she told him, “Sure, I’ll go charge the scanner.”
Kane watched Cassia descend the stairs before he rejoined the crew and shut the pilothouse door. “She’s gone.”
“Okay,” Renny continued in a low voice. “Like I said, I’ve been doing some digging into what happened the day Cassia was taken. The Daeva shouldn’t have known we were coming, because I used an alias for the delivery. Cassia was right when she told Kane it was a setup.”
“Someone tipped off the Daeva,” Solara said. “For a finder’s fee.”
“Exactly, so I followed the money.” Renny tapped the pilot seat’s armrest. “Turns out one of the warehouse workers had a sudden windfall that week, and for an interesting amount of credits—exactly ten percent of Cassia’s bounty. By all accounts the idiot couldn’t find his ass with both hands, but he claims he won the money in an off-world survival contest.”
“Who is he?” Kane asked.
“Jess Ranger. The hovercraft pilot.”
Kane remembered that guy. He was tall and young, and not terrible-looking for a fringe yokel. Cassia had thrown a few glances his way, and the guy had flirted right back. He’d seemed a little too friendly, but Kane had dismissed his suspicion as jealousy.
“Looks like he used the money to buy a farm about a mile outside town,” Renny said. “From what I hear, he has a cash crop ready to harvest.”
Kane expelled a bitter laugh. “Not for long.”
“You said it,” Doran agreed. “We’ll burn it to the ground.”
“Wait.” Solara seemed conflicted as she picked her cuticles and peered from one person to the next. “Are you sure he’s the one?” she asked Renny. “There’s no doubt in your mind?”
“Not one iota.”
“Then I want in, too. But I don’t think we should kill him.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Kane said. “Jess Ranger isn’t getting off that easy.”
If someone had stashed any surveillance bugs on the Banshee, Cassia couldn’t find them. Since they’d landed on Vega, she’d been over every inch of the ship with a voltage scanner, and that was after shutting down the electrical systems and disconnecting the ship’s battery supply to eliminate all current. Anything using the slightest trace of power should’ve shown up like a flashing billboard.
She blew a lock of hair out of her eyes and tossed her scanner onto the galley table.
How was Fleece doing it?
“No luck here,” Arabelle said, approaching from the lower-level staircase. She strode into the galley and opened one hand to reveal a ball of auburn fur. “All I found was this delinquent trying to get inside a crate of dried apples.”
Acorn spread her winged arms and glided to the table, where she scurried across its surface until she reached the hem of Cassia’s T-shirt. Seconds later, the troublemaker found her favorite pocket and nuzzled her way inside it.